WCPZ Mix 102.7

12:33 AM ET CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears have closed the gap on the NFC elite. The Bears served notice Sunday night that they’re a serious threat in a conference long viewed as a two-team race between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints. By virtue of knocking off the Rams 15-6 in a game that felt like a playoff preview, the Bears not only inched closer to wrapping up their first postseason berth since 2010, they also resembled a team capable of winning in January. Roquan Smith had one of the Bears’ four interceptions of Rams quarterback Jared …

11:30 PM ET Kevin SeifertNFL Nation Close ESPN.com national NFL writer ESPN.com NFC North reporter, 2008-2013 Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008 Four of the AFC’s top six teams lost Sunday. None of them, however, fell out of position in the playoff race during the course of a wild Week 14. The Chiefs inched closer to home-field advantage, thanks in part to a ridiculous ending in Miami. Let’s get to the details of the NFL playoff picture as it would look if the season had ended today. Note: X denotes a team that clinched a playoff berth, while Z …

Longevity surely helped the Hall of Fame cause for Harold Baines, who played 22 seasons in the majors and finished 34th all time in career RBIs.  11:22 PM ET In an absolutely stunning Hall of Fame announcement on Sunday night, the Today’s Game Era committee elected Lee Smith … and Harold Baines. I just hope this wasn’t the Hall of Fame’s “La La Land/Moonlight” moment. Smith is understandable. He wouldn’t have been my first choice on this 10-person ballot — no general manager in the 1980s or 1990s would have traded Smith for Will Clark or Orel Hershiser — but …

10:15 PM ET I mean … did you SEE the final play of the Dolphins-Patriots game? If you didn’t, please, go watch it. I’ll wait right here. … Greatest play ever, amirite?? OK, so maybe that’s a little bit much. Tough to rank it with plays like the Music City Miracle and the Minneapolis Miracle, which won playoff games. Or even plays like the David Tyree helmet catch, which helped keep alive an all-time Super Bowl upset. Context matters, and this Week 14 regular-season magic trick didn’t crush the Patriots’ hopes or ensure the Dolphins of anything. It was just …

10:00 PM ET ARLINGTON, Texas — Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins suggested NFL replay officials in New York “stay off the bottle” following a controversial call on the opening kickoff that loomed large in Philly’s 29-23 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Jenkins’ hit on returner Jourdan Lewis resulted in a fumble that linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill appeared to recover when he came out of the pile with the ball. The officials originally ruled that Lewis was down by contact. The Eagles challenged, and while the call was reversed to a fumble, Dallas maintained possession because recovery “wasn’t clear” …

9:05 PM ET Here’s the latest on all the major injuries from our NFL Nation reporters, including the prognosis on each player for Week 15 and beyond: Roethlisberger left the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium field with 10 seconds left in the second quarter after a 1-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster gave Pittsburgh a 14-10 lead. The Steelers’ offense struggled without him, as Joshua Dobbs completed three of his first seven passes for 18 yards and an interception. He finished 4-of-9 for 24 yards, with two rushes for 15 yards. Despite missing most of the second half, Roethlisberger said he assumes …

8:40 PM ET The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Today’s Game Era Committee selected Chicago icons Harold Baines and Lee Smith for enshrinement in Cooperstown, it was announced Sunday. Baines and Lee were joined by Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, Charlie Manuel, Lou Piniella and George Steinbrenner as candidates on the ballot. Twelve votes from the 16-person committee were needed for election at baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas. Next summer’s ceremony will be on July 21. Results from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting will be announced on Jan. 22.

ABCNews.com(LOS ANGELES) — Two nuns at a Catholic church in Southern California are suspected of embezzling up to $500,000 in school funds, allegedly using some of the money to go on trips and gamble at casinos, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told ABC News. The nuns, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang, had been “involved in the personal use of a substantial amount” of school funds “over a period of years,” Monsignor Michael Meyers, pastor for the St. James Catholic School in Redondo Beach — about 20 miles southwest of Los Angeles — wrote in …

Okeechobee Police Department (NEW YORK) —  Surveillance video shows the dramatic moment an elderly woman in Florida was almost run over by a driver who allegedly had just stolen her purse. The woman had walked outside of a McDonald’s in Okeechobee to confront the suspected thief on Thursday night when she was injured, according to the Okeechobee Police Department. A surveillance camera outside the restaurant captured the man, clad in khaki shorts and a light-colored baseball cap, pulling up to the restaurant in a silver hatchback, a passenger in the front seat. The man then entered the McDonald’s and less …

7:49 PM ET Just like the first leg of the Copa Libertadores final, the controversial return match in Madrid was full of ebbs and flows and ended with four goals being scored. Unlike the first leg, however, the four goals in Madrid were not evenly distributed. And after the first half, it seemed more likely that Boca Juniors would come out on top. For around an hour, the game unfolded exactly as Boca would have wanted. The River Plate attack badly missed the movement of suspended striker Rafael Santos Borre — they looked static and predictable. Boca were happy to …

7:31 PM ET Adrian WojnarowskiESPN The Los Angeles Lakers are engaged in talks trying to acquire Phoenix Suns forward Trevor Ariza, league sources told ESPN. The teams have been working to reach an agreement with a third team that would take on Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as part of a potentially larger deal, league sources said. The Suns want to land a playmaking guard and a draft asset as the price of unloading Ariza, sources said. Phoenix and Los Angeles have made progress in third-team scenarios, although no agreements are close and both teams remain active in multiple trade discussions …

A top executive of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] argued that she should be released on bail while awaiting an extradition hearing, citing fears for her health while incarcerated in Canada along with other factors, court documents showed on Sunday.

More than 150 countries will join a United Nations conference to adopt a global pact to better handle migrant flows, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday, less than the number that initially worked on the plan.

Armenia’s acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is on his way to bolstering his authority as his political bloc appeared to have taken a clear lead in elections in the ex-Soviet country on Sunday, the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) preliminary results showed.

A top executive of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] argued that she should be let out on bail while awaiting an extradition hearing due to severe hypertension and fears for her health while incarcerated in Canada, court documents released on Sunday showed.